![]() ![]() After Antony’s final defeat at Actium in 31 bce, he frankly confessed to the victorious Octavian which side he had taken. He continued to do so even when Antony’s mistress, Cleopatra, the queen of Egypt, used her influence with Antony to gain much of Herod’s best land. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content.ĭuring the conflict between the two triumvirs Octavian and Antony, the heirs to Caesar’s power, Herod supported his friend Antony. Although the union was directed at ending his feud with the Hasmoneans, a priestly family of Jewish leaders, he was deeply in love with Mariamne. To further solidify his power, he divorced his first wife, Doris, sent her and his son away from court, and married Mariamne, a Hasmonean princess. ![]() In the year 37 bce, at the age of 36, Herod became the unchallenged ruler of Judaea, a position he was to maintain for 32 years. The senate there nominated him king of Judaea and equipped him with an army to make good his claim. In 40 bce the Parthians invaded Palestine, civil war broke out, and Herod was forced to flee to Rome. Six years later Mark Antony made him tetrarch of Galilee. Herod made his political debut in the same year, when his father appointed him governor of Galilee. Julius Caesar also favoured the family he appointed Antipater procurator of Judaea in 47 bce and conferred on him Roman citizenship, an honour that descended to Herod and his children. Six years later Herod met Mark Antony, whose lifelong friend he was to remain. When Pompey (106–48 bce) invaded Palestine in 63 bce, Antipater supported his campaign and began a long association with Rome, from which both he and Herod were to benefit. Thus, Herod was of Arab origin, although he was a practicing Jew. Antipater was a man of great influence and wealth who increased both by marrying the daughter of a noble from Petra (in southwestern Jordan), at that time the capital of the rising Arab Nabataean kingdom. His father, Antipater, was an Edomite (a Semitic people, identified by some scholars as Arab, who converted to Judaism in the 2nd century bce). The New Testament portrays him as a tyrant, into whose kingdom Jesus of Nazareth was born. Herod, byname Herod the Great, Latin Herodes Magnus, (born 73 bce-died March/April, 4 bce, Jericho, Judaea), Roman-appointed king of Judaea (37–4 bce), who built many fortresses, aqueducts, theatres, and other public buildings and generally raised the prosperity of his land but who was the centre of political and family intrigues in his later years. ![]() His cause of death is debated, but it is known that he was in both mental and physical disorder in his final years and that he suffered from arteriosclerosis. ![]() Herod the Great died of natural causes in 4 BCE.
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